Microscope Fiesta

Did you think Old Ken had died? It's either feast or famine, I guess. With that in mind, sit back and fill your sniffer with these delights of microscope fun! (So to speak).

What are we looking at here? Well, this is a digital photograph taken by your truly of the fly seen through a mid-twentieth century compound microscope. Do it "replicate" what the eye can see? No, but keep it in mind.



Especially for thinking in contrast with a sample of a seventeenth century of the kind used by our friend, Dr. Robert Hooke, to such compelling effect. This is not Hooke's microscope as such, but it is a "Hooke style" microscope made by Christoper Cock (a friend of Hooke's) ca. 1675. Note the little white flake of plaster placed on the instrument's stage at the center of the picture.



Now, what is this we're seeing here? It is again a digital image - - made in the same primitive manner as that of the fly above - - representing what could be seen of the plaster flake through Cock's "Hooke" microscope! Admittedly, the light source was quite a bit weaker than in the image above. But, seeing such things makes you Hooke's famous microscopic images all the more incredible.



Speaking of incredible, check this out: this is a replica of one of Antony van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes - - an instrument with which he observed things (supposedly!) like red blood cells and semen. The thing is about the size of a military dog tag and I couldn't see anything through it.



Finally, what we see here is curator using a strange late 17th century microscope with little fork-like tongs on which to spear the object and then an articulated stem that allows you to move the eyepiece to meet the object. This was the most effective of the microscopic devices I tried during this fiesta of fun. Que bueno!